Jewish History

Pages:

2

Academic Level:

University

Paper Type:

Annotated Bibliography

Discipline:

Religion and Theology

Can you write one paragraph for each prompt answering the questions below. It's all to do with Jewish history. Paper should be around 2 pages

What is the artifact that you have selected? What is its origin or provenance? Is there a scholarly consensus about the artifact’s provenance?  If historians are divided on the subject, explain the main scholarly opinions about this artifact. When, where and how was this artifact discovered? What does this artifact contribute to our understanding of Jewish history? 

What is the place you have selected? What is the larger geographic context of the place you have selected? How did this location play an important role during this time period? Was this an important religious, social or political location for Jews? How so? 

Who is the individual you have selected? When did they live and what is the nature of their impact on Jewish history? Is there a scholarly consensus about this individual? If historians are divided on the subject, explain the main scholarly opinions about this individual.

Location: Kalisz
Artifact: Minute-book of the Council of the Four Lands
Person: Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer

Student’s Name

Instructor’s Name

Course Code

Date

Jewish History

            The artifact I have selected is the minute book of the council of the four lands. They referred to the main institutions of the Jewish self-government in Lithuania and Poland in the 16^th century and ended in 1764. Representatives formed it from the four councils that the Jews had in Poland. The councils were Volhynia, Little and Great Poland, and Subcarpathian Rus. The Jewish provinces were called lands, and the councils in charge represented the highest form of Jewish autonomy in the regional and national framework. The councils maintained an official minute book called a Pinkas, which contained the resolution records and budgets legally (Litt 242). The first records were in 1580 and contained the minutes of meetings, lists of the officers elected in annual meetings, the bylaws, trials, fines, and historical events. This artifact documents the understanding of the Jewish culture because it contains information about the rulings that limited Jewish economic competition with the nobility and the regulations on treating Jewish bankrupts.

            I have selected Kalisz, located Lodz’s west in the province of Poznan. For centuries, Kalisz was the border between Germany and Poland. It was established in 1264, and was one of Poland’s first towns, important in establishing the history of the Jews in Poland. During this period, Prince Boleslav and Krakow’s Duke initiated the charter to make Jews a part of the local community. This made Kalisz a social location for the Jews (Bogucka 51). This gave them the right to settle and have financial and religious freedom. The Kalisz Jewish community played a significant role in the council of the four lands. The Jews in this community earned a living through money lending and import-export merchants dealing with horses, livestock, textiles, and agricultural produce. The merchants in Kalisz were a significant part of the international fair in German's Breslau and Leipzig (Krzyzanowski 362). Thus, living in Kalisz was an important time for the Jews because they lived freely, participated in trade, and interacted with the exotic Germans.

            The individual I have selected is Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer. He lived between August 1698 and May 1760. He was a Jewish mystic who founded Hasidic Judaism. As a young man, he was known for his honesty and extreme knowledge of human nature. This led him to be chosen to act as a mediator and arbitrator for the people conducting lawsuits against each other. This led to his success in making a positive impression on the rich and the poor. Eliezer impacted Jewish history through his teachings about God's conception. Eliezer declared the mind, the universe, and matter as a manifestation of the divine being; he explained that the manifestation did not mean an emanation from God because nothing could be separated from him (Buber 1). He began the Jewish belief that everything is a form in which God reveals himself. He taught the Jews to remember that their speeches were elements of life that manifested God. However, Eliezer's teaching methods differed from his opponents, but they contributed to their success. His opponents believed that his teachings did not reflect God's positive relationship with humanity because he claimed that God existed in everything, including sin. However,  he used stories and parables to explain his teachings, and this unashamed and unapologetic worship and union with God positively influenced the Jewish religion.

Works Cited

Bogucka, Maria. "Jewish Merchants in Gdańsk in the 16th-17th Centuries: A Policy of Toleration or Discrimination?." Acta Poloniae Historica 65 (1992): 47-57.

Buber, Martin. The legend of the Baal-Shem. Routledge, 2013.

Krzyzanowski, Lukasz. "Holocaust Survivors and the Restitution of Jewish Private Property in Two Polish Cities, 1945–1948." Holocaust and Genocide Studies 35.3 (2021): 359-375.

Litt, Stefan. "Ashkenazi-Dutch Pinkassim as sources for studying european-jewish migration: The cases of Middelburg and the Hague in the eighteenth century." The Dutch Intersection. Brill, 2008. 239–250.